What's In A Name?

Making big decisions usually stress me out. So we are acting fast on some of the big decisions with this pregnancy to get me to stop re-thinking all the options! Picking a name is one the top items on the list of big decisions to make.

"Owen James Shaddix," that is what we have decided to name our little guy. Chris wanted to have his grandpa Don's name, Donald Owen Taylor, to be a part of our son's name. We both loved grandpa Don so much. Chris has many memories of his grandpa helping him with math homework and sharing stories of wisdom and life experience. Chris spent many summers and some school months living with his grandparents, so Don was a huge part of his life. When I became a part of the family, Don quickly felt like he'd been in my life since I was young, too. He was always so full of love and great to talk with! We pray our Owen will have the same love for others, desire for knowledge and courage that grandpa Don displayed.

James is a family name on my side. My dad's first name, passed on to one of my younger brothers as a middle name, and a name I always wanted to have as a part of my son's name. Thankfully I also spent many summers and school months with my dad (okay, every one for the first 19 years of my life!) and my dad helped me with math homework quite a bit, too. Baking chocolate chip cookies was definitely one of my best "dad" memories growing up, as well as playing with remote control cars in the backyard. James is also my favorite book of the Bible, it is a book of wisdom and sincerity. James is the book I turn to whenever I am going through a hard time or need encouragement to continue loving and serving others. So, as with the James' in my life I pray that the same characteristics of wisdom, compassion and playfulness will be true of our Owen, as well.

We played around with a few combinations: Taylor James (we knew James Taylor wasn't going to work) and James Owen - but in the end "Owen James" won the day. It flows so well and reminds us a bit of a cowboy.  We have found on lists of baby names that Owen is a Celtic name meaning, "Young Warrior" and James is a Hebrew name meaning, "One Who Supplants". Hmm, if the meaning of a name is truly characteristic of the person, Chris and I may have our hands full in directing those strong characteristics toward a positive end!